Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The Castle Occupant Rides Forth

Over at The Alexandrian, there is a great post about hexcrawling and "archaic game structures."

One part of Justin's post is this paragraph:
A vestigial remnant of this structure survived all the way into the Rule Cyclopedia (where tables were still being presented to randomly determine the attitude of castle occupants), but I’m guessing it’s been essentially nonexistent in actual play since 1980 at the latest. And, unlike JG-style hexcrawling, I doubt these “castle occupant rides forth” game structures are likely to enjoy a significant renaissance any time soon.
Well, I'm not arguing with the thesis of his article, but last night, on "Game of Thrones," this happened --
Danerys Targaryian visits the Thirteen at Qarth...

The castle occupant strode forth...

To me, this was a very good scene, filled with tense drama and "roleplaying."  Delightful interplay between the primary characters.  

With excellent examples like this, maybe there will be a renaissance of this game structure.  :)

1 comment:

Necropraxis said...

I've always liked the idea of this, and I would like to try it in a game.